A vandal in Naples burned down a lately put in art work by one among Italy’s most well-known residing artists, prompting outrage amongst residents together with a pledge by metropolis officers that the piece would get replaced with a brand new model.

Just earlier than daybreak on Wednesday, a vandal set fireplace to a monumental model of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Venus of the Rags,” which had been inaugurated in a sq. in entrance of City Hall two weeks in the past. It is a seminal work by the artist, a protagonist of Arte Povera, or “poor art,” the Italian avant-garde motion that emerged within the Nineteen Sixties and sometimes makes use of humble supplies.

The almost 23-foot-high work consisting of an outsized statue of a neoclassical Venus urgent frivolously towards a mound of vivid, discarded clothes, burned rapidly, the flames fueled by the artwork supplies — and by temperatures so scorching that the Venus, crafted from expanded polyethylene, melted. After the flames have been extinguished, all that was left was the art work’s monumental metallic body, and piles of ashes.

“We’ve lost the opportunity to show that we are a European city,” mentioned Antonio De Iesu, town council member with oversight of the police. “It’s done tremendous damage to the image of Naples.”

The work was unveiled on June 28 in a lately accomplished piazza between the port and town heart that for some 20 years was a cacophonous development web site. It is one among three artworks on the core of a challenge funded by City Hall and meant to deliver consideration to little identified areas of town heart, or, within the case of the Pistoletto work, to “show one of the most symbolic, most central places in the city in a different light,” mentioned Vincenzo Trione, the curator of the challenge.

The art work had develop into a selfie magnet, Mr. Trione mentioned, and residents and vacationers alike had braved the summer time warmth to see the work, which was scheduled to stay within the sq. till December.

But not everybody was so enthusiastic concerning the artwork. After the hearth, some turned to social media to launch their internal critic. “The venus of rags was so ugly that she set fire to herself,” wrote Twitter person Beata Scritta a Matita, only one variation of a number of the good-riddance feedback.

Mr. Pistoletto mentioned Wednesday he was “appalled” and stunned by the assault. In his view, the work juxtaposed two apparently contrasting components — classical magnificence and discarded clothes — to deliver them collectively and create concord and regeneration.

The artist, who turned 90 final month, created the primary iteration of this work in 1967, and it has been exhibited in lots of museums and nations since.

That the work in Naples was “of monumental proportions,” and positioned in a public place, in entrance of City Hall — a degree of “tension,” the artist mentioned — may assist clarify the eye it acquired, good and dangerous. But the artist mentioned violent destruction was the very last thing he had anticipated.

Danilo Eccher, the curator of an exhibition of Mr. Pistoletto’s work at present displaying in Rome — which features a model of “Venus of the Rags” — mentioned that so far as he knew, it was the primary case of vandalism towards any iteration of the work.

“Pistoletto’s works are always acclaimed and recognized as great works of art, it’s never been a problem,” Mr. Eccher mentioned. But, he added, public artwork was one thing else. “There is always an element of risk from the fact that it is placed within a social context and not behind the protective filter of a museum or gallery,” he mentioned.

Still, Naples has a typically respectful relationship with modern artwork.

“Naples has always been culturally open and receptive,” mentioned Lia Rumma, the proprietor of a up to date artwork gallery in Naples. “It is a complex city, but it is not apathetic or indifferent, even in this gesture,” she mentioned.

On Wednesday night, officers at Naples City Hall mentioned a homeless man in his early 30s had been detained on suspicion of getting set the hearth. The police had examined the recordings of video cameras within the sq., which “made it possible to identify the likely perpetrator and track him down in a soup kitchen,” based on a press release.

The metropolis’s mayor, Gaetano Manfredi, advised reporters on the scene of the blaze on Wednesday morning that the set up was “a great symbol of regeneration,” representing “a new start of society.” It “cannot be stopped by vandalism or violence.” He mentioned the set up could be remade.

Mr. Pistoletto mentioned he “would be happy to be able to remake it, also to show that good things are not lost, that good initiatives are not lost.”